I had signed up to ride GFL in 2020 but, like most events, it was cancelled so I eagerly awaited an opportunity to ride it when it was next scheduled.

Though this ride is short it packs a lot of awesome into its 20 miles. There are wildflowers, terrific gravel, great views, and abandon railroads. I was delighted with this loop.

I’ve climbed Bon Jon before and with the great weather decided to have a crack at it again.

Unseasonably warm weather encouraged a discovery ride through the Olympic National Forest and through the trails of Miller Peninsula State Park. I had a large gap on my personal heatmap for the Miller Peninsula and sought to fill it with this ride.

We wanted a bit of an adventure run without a lot of running through snow and this route was nearly perfect.

I rode the Capital Forest once before, for the 2019 Cascadia Super Gravel and I got lit up. I was riding my 29er mountain bike on which I didn’t have many miles and I had almost no idea what I was doing racing on gravel. I remember the climbs being steep, the descents fast, and the overall environment pretty incredible.

I finally had time and cooperative weather to ride this classic PNW loop through the mountains. The Seattle Randonneurs have a 200K brevet route but since I was riding on my own I decided to shorted it by ~30 miles and avoid some of the less scenic city riding.

Mt Townsend is an extremely popular hike in the Olympics appearing in all the popular day hike books. This route built on the standard hike by adding an extension to make a loop via a short jaunt on FR 2870 and the Silver Lakes Way Trail.

I hadn’t been to Royal Lake since a backpacking trip in July 2011. At the time we were unable to make it to the upper basin because of a late melting snow pack. I was excited to explore the upper basin on this trip as over the last few years I had become pretty familiar with the region from prior rides and hikes.

I started this ride by entering through the Park entrance at Longmire and parking in the day use lot behind the lodge.